I usually avoid doing food review sessions on my regular sports day, but when Jack from Superdining insisted that I should go to Kura Japanese Restaurant at One World Hotel on a Monday, I couldn’t help but agreeing to it. This was mainly due to the excellent experience I had at Rakuzen Chulan Square and Japanese food being one of my favorite cuisines.

Jack later told me the real reason he wanted me to go on that particular day was due to the fact that they have fresh seafood imported from Japan on that very day. The company usually imports seafood product from Japan twice a week.

The interior decoration and design of the restaurant was unique enough to confuse anyone who couldn’t exactly understand Picaso’s paintings. It usually takes 2-3 wrong turns to find your table after a bathroom break. However, I must say it is very tastefully done.

appetizers, California hand rolls, crab meat chawanmushi, gingko nuts

The restaurant is headed by the very experience chef Hideaki Nakashima who is most skilled in preparing wide range of some very creative Japanese dishes. The six appetizer dishes Nakashima-san served us certainly reflects his ability.

They were oshitashi (Japanese spinach) with fish sauce, tomato and hotate (scallop) with vinegar, ikura (salmon roe) with yam, tako (octopus) with plum sauce, and hotate with enoki and other mushroom. There’s also grilled and slightly salted Japanese gingko nuts.

The appetizers were pretty intricate in presentation and certainly did not lack at all in the tasting department. Each has its individual character and overall they introduced a different dimension in Japanese cuisine to me.

Sashimi (including Fugu!), and rainbow roll

Sashimi and sushi are always inescapable when it comes to doing a review at any Japanese restaurants. At Kura, we were served the freshest seafood that had just been flown in the very same day. Fugu (yes, the poisonous puffer fish!), kampachi (yellow tail), tai (sea bream), sake (salmon), tako (octopus), shima aji (yellow jack), amaebi (sweet shrimp), and maguro (tuna).

It was my first time having fugu sashimi, and unlike other raw fish, fugu is best consumed with a little bit of green onion and radish instead of wasabi in order to better appreciate the very subtle taste. It was actually pretty good. The other sashimi and the rainbow roll was as good as you could expect from a top notch Japanese restaurant. Super fresh and certainly of very good quality.

the good chef, RM 28 chicken teriyaki set, desserts

Since Cheesie speaks Japanese, chef Nakashima was overjoyed as they went into extended conversation only both of them understood. This certainly made the good chef very happy and soon we were served with extra Carlifornia roll and also the crab meat chawanmushi which were very delicious.

Though located within a 5 star hotel, Kura isn’t only for those who are willing to splurge on a good meal. The cheapest meal full meal, the chicken teriyaki set priced at RM 28, comes with a generous serving of very tasty chicken teriyaki, rice, a small appetizer, chawanmushi, miso soup, and fruits. Very affordable especially in this setting, with these type of quality.

YC (penumpang glamor), KY, Cheesie

When we were all pretty stuffed, they brought in some home made Japanese bean curd (with sliced strawberry on top) and several scoops of pretty unique imported ice cream for dessert. The melon and pumpkin ice cream were pretty unique and interesting, while the bean curd certainly different from the local variety in a good way.

Since this was a food review session, some of the dishes provided were actually not found on the menu. However, you could still order them via special request.

foodcrazee,
You should try it then! After all you’re in the food industry kan? 😀

clement,
The price at Kura is slightly higher than your average Japanese restaurants, but i reckon it should not be more than RM 100 per person for a very good meal, and you can usually get away with RM 50 per pax too. The review session wasn’t from the menu and hence pricing information is a bit lacking. 🙂
p/s: Thanks